NYC Public Schools Reopening Plan: Here's What We Know So Far

Updated October 5th, 2020

With September upon us, city officials have crafted a plan to reopen schools for New York City's 1.1 million public school students — but key questions are still unanswered.

We'll be updating this page, gothamist.com/schoolreopening, as we get more information. You can also send us tips and questions at [email protected]. Here's what we know so far:

What is NYC’s plan for public schools?

Under Mayor Bill de Blasio's proposal, each of New York City’s 1,606 public schools will offer “blended learning” that’s a hybrid of part-time in-person instruction and remote learning. Students will start learning on September 21st, with most blended learning students returning to schools on September 29th or October 1st.

Each school’s principal has since chosen one of two models so that student populations can maintain social distancing rules: one model has the school population divided into two cohorts, and the other option has the population divided into three cohorts.

Depending on the school’s chosen model, most students will attend in-person instruction in their schools between one to three days a week. The rest of the time, kids will be enrolled in remote education — Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza vowed that "New York City students will be learning five days a week, whether it's in person, or at home.” Students also have the option to enroll in full-time remote learning.

At any point in the school year, students can switch from blended learning model to full-time remote learning. At each quarter, students can opt into blended learning with in-person instruction.

In the blended model, the DOE’s health and safety plans call for students to remain in a small group with the same people in the same room, with teachers moving from class to class.

When is the first day of school?

Updated September 2nd: The first day of school will be September 21st, 11 days later than initially planned.

Updated September 17th: The first day of school is still September 21st, but for the bulk of the students, they will be joining their classmates online. Here's the staggered schedule of when in-person learning begins:

• September 21st for 3-K, Pre-K, and District 75
• September 29th for K-5 and K-8 schools
• October 1st for middle and high schools, as well as transfer schools/adult education schools

The reason for the staggered schedule—to locate enough staff for this unusual school year.

Mayor Bill de Blasio originally wanted to reopen schools on September 10th under the hybrid, in-person model, arguing any kind of in-person learning is better than remote.

But after intense pressure from various school labor unions, notably the United Federation of Teachers and Council of School Supervisors & Administrators unions, de Blasio delayed school reopening to September 16th for remote learning "orientation" and in-person learning for September 21st. The rescheduled date is to ensure teachers receive the proper training for remote instruction. Teachers will be trained on how to use various remote learning platforms beginning September 16th.

What is going on with remote learning? Will my kids be taught by their own teachers?

The “vast majority” of students in full remote learning will be taught by teachers from their schools, according to the DOE, with “some limited exceptions on a school-by-school basis.” The plan is to offer students learning remotely with some form of daily live instruction, which can be done with the whole class, in small groups, or with individual students.

The president of the United Federation of Teachers union, Michael Mulgrew, told the membership in late July that there could be district-wide educators to cover schools that don’t have enough teachers to teach remotely. Mulgrew also told the membership that teachers will not be required to do both remote and in-person teaching at the same time, though he added that some specialty teachers may have to because there aren’t enough classes in their area.

Questions remain over how much live instruction will remote learning include—there was no minimum number of hours of live instruction during the spring semester after New York schools were closed, but the summer session did have required minimums.

The deadline for families to tell the DOE if they were enrolling exclusively in remote learning was August 7th, though in reality students can switch from blended learning to remote learning at any point in the school year. De Blasio announced on August 12th that 26% of students—or 264,000 students—enrolled in full-time remote learning. Given the design of the enrollment survey—those who did not fill out the online form were by default registered for the school's hybrid in-person program—and the deadline which families may have missed, the numbers may be over-counting those who are truly planning to show up for in-person learning.

Updated, October 5th: As of October 2nd, approximately 503,377 students are enrolled in remote learning, or 50% of the school population.

As of October 2nd, families in minority groups are opting into remote learning are a higher rate than whites: 67% of Asian students are enrolled in remote learning are Asian, while 48% of Black students and 48% of Hispanic students have selected remote learning; almost 35% of white parents have opted for remote learning for their children. 70% of the public student population is Black or Hispanic.

Will there be live instruction?

The DOE said live instruction will be provided every day for kids enrolled in blended or remote learning —the youngest students will get 15-20 consecutive minutes of live instruction, and increase by grade level though the complete details of the time requirements were not yet available.

Updated September 17th: The DOE says that in order to provide more flexibility to schools that are struggling to find staff, some hybrid students will not receive live instruction on their remote learning days. (October 1st) Carranza indicated that as schools get into the groove of the new school year, staffing needs will be better understood—and the goal is to have children in school taught with live instruction. He also noted that it's important for children to be in school, with adults around, for other socio-emotional reasons.

Does every school have to offer a hybrid plan?

The DOE originally said only families can decide on remote learning, not schools - but at the end of July, Carranza said schools could apply for exceptions to the blending learning model. Some schools like Stuyvesant and NEST+m high schools have reportedly considered switching to an entirely-remote model for all of the student population.

The DOE said neither of the schools had submitted proposals or exceptions. Final plans are to be provided by principals, the agency added.

Schools can ask for an exception to the DOE’s proposed models if:

• “The recommended models are not feasible and safe given space, staffing, family choice and expected in-person attendance”
• “Schools have unique programmatic needs that must be addressed, to better meet the needs of the community”

Still, the DOE seems to trying to dissuade schools from seeking exceptions, with a spokesperson saying there are “serious concerns about a model that would only provide remote instruction, if that is not the universal request from all parents in the community."

What does the state have to say about schools reopening? Will Governor Andrew Cuomo reverse any NYC decisions?

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on August 7th that based on the state's low infection rates, he has authorized all school districts in New York state to re-open this fall for in-person education, including New York City.

Cuomo's benchmark for schools to reopen was that infection rates in the region must be 5% or less on a 14-day average. He has also said the schools will close if the infection rate is 9% or higher on a 7-day average.

However, de Blasio has announced a more ambitious threshold for the city's public schools, saying that they will reopen in September only if the coronavirus positivity rate in the city stays below 3%, as it has since June 10th. (The state has overall guidelines, but will leave the details up to the districts themselves.) The positivity rate is based on a seven-day rolling average of tests.

Each district's plan will still need to be approved by the state’s health and education departments, though Cuomo did not give deadlines on those approvals.

Updated, September 8th: New York State will offer a dashboard to track cases at all school districts—available at https://forward.ny.gov/dashboard-covid-19-data-schools—with the districts required to share information including how many students and faculty are on-site; percentage of on-site students and staff who test positive; and number of tests, test type, lab, and lag time. The dashboard will go life on September 9th.

How will the schools be cleaned? What's the deal with ventilation?

Guidelines for schools from the Centers for Disease Control emphasize small groups, spaced out desks, social distancing, hygiene and sanitizing buildings as a way of keeping schools safe and clean.

While inside a public school building, students and teachers will be asked to wear masks and remain six feet apart, though Carranza wants the policy to be implemented in service of educational goals. “We are not talking about punishing kids. We want to make sure it's an educationally sound approach, and it's gonna be a lot of encouragement,” he said.

School facilities will be deep cleaned on a nightly basis with “electrostatic disinfectant sprayers,” and the DOE is upgrading HVAC systems in school buildings.

The DOE also surveyed school handwashing sinks, HVAC systems, and window functionality and said it’s working with the New York City School Construction Authority “to complete repairs and ensure air circulation before start of school." The DOE added it's "also upgrading central HVAC system filters from MERV 8 to MERV 13 where appropriate.”

The DOE is also promising to supply all schools with hand sanitizer, soap, and disinfectants.

Updated, September 2nd: With ventilation a concern for teachers, the DOE formed more than 100 Special Ventilation Action Teams on August 25th, in which ventilation experts and engineers inspected every classroom in each public school to assess airflow. Classrooms that lacked proper airflow, which was determined through a so-called "tissue test," were flagged for repair.

The DOE released initial figures showing 8% of 99 schools had classrooms that were not ready to be occupied for improper airflow. The School Construction Authority, which led the effort to inspect each school, said those classrooms will be repaired before classes start.

Updated, September 8th: The DOE released school ventilation reports for almost 1,500 schools (there are 1,600 public schools) but the reports, which are an Excel file in a PDF, simply list rooms at each school and details for six categories like, "Primary Usage? (Student-Staff Space/ Building Support Space/ Inaccessible/ Room Not Found)" and "Windows? (Yes/No)." However, there's no guidance on how to decipher the reports for the schools to understand whether a school is in good shape.

Ten buildings, some of which house multiple schools, were found to be unsafe for indoor instruction. For instance, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Campus on the Upper West Side, which has six schools, none of the classrooms have windows.

What happens if there's a COVID-19 case at the school?

The DOE has released plans for schools experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks that involve contact tracing and several possible scenarios. The scenarios range from a single positive case, in which students and staff with close contact with an infected person in a classroom will self-quarantine for 14 days, to at least two cases in different classrooms, which would close the entire school for 14 days and result in a shift to full remote learning.

An epidemiologist called the NYC school reopening and contact tracing plan "gutsy," adding, "And, you know, on some level it sort of has to happen.”

On August 12th, the DOE released a detailed health and safety plan that said even if New York City’s positivity rates for coronavirus remain below the 3% threshold set by de Blasio in his schools reopening plan, the entire school system may still be shut down if there were “recurrent, uncontrolled outbreaks of COVID-19” in one or more of the city’s public schools.

The DOE plans also call for each school’s formation of a Building Response Team that will be responsible for “managing and supporting” any COVID-19 outbreaks in a school community. The BRT will identify isolation rooms in each school building where ailing students or staff can be monitored until they go home. Students and staff are expected to perform their own daily health screenings and temperature checks before coming to school each day, and the DOE said it will provide thermometers for families who need one.

Updated September 2nd: As part of the school reopening plan, the DOE plans to establish testing sites at or near public schools, in accordance with its agreement with school labor unions. Testing will be free for students and DOE staffers. The city and unions also agreed to randomized testing of each school's students and staffers, with a sample size of 15%-20% of each school's population. The randomized testing begins October 1st. It's unclear whether charter schools co-located in a public school building will need to abide by the program.

Updated September 17th: According to a DOE spokesperson, "Testing for teachers, staff, and students will be done at or adjacent to schools by clinical staff from NYC Health + Hospitals and different organizations. There will be assigned days for different schools once a month that meet the percentage guidelines outlined in the original plan."

Further, the city has announced the formation of a "Situation Room" for principals to report confirmed to suspected cases. It will have staff from the DOE, Test & Trace Corps, and the Health Department.

What about students with disabilities? Multilingual Learners?

District 75 schools for students with disabilities will offer in-person instruction for all their students: either a model with two student groups who receive in-person instruction alternating every other week, or a second model of two student groups meeting two to three days per week (rotating Mondays). Some students may receive in-person instruction daily depending on need.

Students who require Individualized Education Programs will also be instructed in person as much as possible depending on their school model, according to the DOE.

The students enrolled in bilingual learning will “continue to be provided with the required supports which include [English as a New Language], Home Language Arts, and bilingual content areas,” the DOE said, but offered no further details on how these programs will happen in remote learning contexts.

Updated September 17th: Days before school is scheduled to begin on September 21st, special education teachers were desperate for details.

What about students in temporary housing?

Thirty nonprofit social service organizations are calling on the city to prioritize the needs of students experiencing homelessness in their plans to reopen public schools. The groups want to see the city Department of Education offer these students in-person instruction full time and commit to providing legally required transportation. Among the signatories: Children’s Aid, Advocates for Children, Legal Services NYC, the Legal Aid Society, the NAACP New York State Conference, and the Partnership for the Homeless.

“Only 60% of all NYC students who are homeless graduate from high school,” the letter said. “For NYC students living in shelters, the outcomes are even more stark—fewer than half graduate from high school and two-thirds are chronically absent from school. The pandemic has only magnified these inequities.”

Under the current plan, principals would determine how many days students can attend in-person based on the available space. While the DOE has not offered details on who will be receiving school-bus and other transportation yet, the reopening proposal submitted to the state said school-bus service may be more limited than in the past:

“While it is widely recognized that the current pandemic presents unique challenges to providing school bus service and that it may not be possible to provide service in all cases, to the extent possible, DOE will provide school transportation, as required, to include all public, non-public, charter schools, students with special needs and students in temporary housing situations. Because of this unique situation, it may not be possible to provide transportation through a conventional mode such as a bus, and may require other modes to be employed to satisfy transportation needs, such as MetroCard.”

What childcare options will be available for working parents of young children who aren't in school yet, and kids on their remote learning days?

The city intends to provide 100,000 childcare spots this fall for families with young children and middle school or younger students enrolled in blended learning, with the kids fully supervised by city staffers at places like libraries and cultural centers. The plan is to source space for 50,000 children on any school day, de Blasio said. The city’s Office of Management and Budget said it was looking for suitable spaces to expand the program.

The city’s Regional Enrichment Centers, which provide childcare for the families of essential workers, will not operate after school starts.

Updated September 2nd: The DOE released a survey for families looking to participate in the Learning Bridges day care program, asking families if they're essential workers, a DOE employee, or a public housing resident.

Updated, September 8th: De Blasio announced that 30,000 children, grades K-8, will be able to attend Learning Bridges starting on September 21st, with capacity growing to 70,000 by the end of October and to 100,000 by December. (The mayor also said he wanted to increase capacity beyond the 100,000 later.)

What about the safety of teachers, school staffers, and custodians?

Teachers can opt to stay home and teach remotely, Carranza and the DOE said—but only if they themselves have a documented existing medical condition and submit a Reasonable Accommodation Request through the DOE's Medical Bureau.

The DOE said it anticipates up to 20% of its employee workforce to be eligible to work remotely, based on state and federal guidance regarding age and high risk criteria. The reopening plan calls for all DOE staff members to take a COVID-19 test shortly before the first day of school at 34 city-run testing locations where they will have “priority access” and expedited results. The city-run testing sites will also test families, according to the DOE, though it’s not clear if students and families will receive expedited results as well.

The DOE and UFT say teachers over the age of 65 will “automatically” be granted accommodation, while teachers between 50 to 64 years old will be considered. If teachers submit documentation proving that an existing medical condition can worsen if they return to the classroom, they will be granted an accommodation, the UFT said.

A full list of acceptable medical conditions for an RAR can be found on the UFT website.

Mulgrew said the UFT is also pushing the DOE to allow teachers to work remotely if they live with at-risk family members as well.

The Local 372 union, which represents non-teaching staff including lunch and food services workers, school and health aides, crossing guards, substance abuse counselors, paraprofessionals and parent coordinators, said their membership will be able to apply for RARs. Its union president, Shaun Francois, said he’s working on staggered scheduling for his membership who will have to work in-person such as food services.

Custodian engineers will also have the chance to apply for RARs, according to their union Local 891 president and business manager Robert Troeller.

The DOE said, “Schools and offices may consider the needs of staff who may not feel comfortable returning to an in-person educational environment when making assignments and modifying work settings and/or schedules where possible,” but did not provide further details on how much flexibility will be given to staff.

On August 12th, Carranza said that 15% of teachers—or approximately 2,000—have thus far applied for Reasonable Accommodation Requests to teach remotely.

Updated September 2nd: De Blasio announced that there will be a nurse available in every school building as part of the reopening plan. The nurses, part of the New York City Health and Hospitals network, will be charged with screening and isolating students and staffers who show coronavirus symptoms.

Updated, September 8th: According to the DOE, 30,400 staff members (17,600 of them teachers) applied for the accommodations, and about 26,700 were granted, including about 15,900 teachers, which is about 21% of teachers, and 200 principals.

Is outdoor learning a possibility?

The DOE said it’s scouring for every setting imaginable to use as classroom or childcare space—including large venues such as the Jacob Javits Center. Officials have remained vague over whether an outdoor learning setting is an option, though studies have shown that outdoor transmission of the virus is significantly reduced. There is currently a push from parents to relocate classrooms outdoors, which was done in the past.

In its health and safety plans, the DOE laid out a vision of what students will see inside their school buildings this fall: “School leaders must create plans to support movement that upholds physical distancing throughout the building, e.g. the use of one directional stairwells and single file travel patterns."

Elevator usage will be restricted, and cafeterias and auditoriums likely to be turned into instructional space.

Updated September 2nd: After increasing pressure, de Blasio and Carranza announced on August 24th that all schools can offer outdoor learning. Principals began submitting plans on August 28th, in order for approval by the week of August 31st. Carranza emphasized that principals can continue submitting outdoor learning plans past the initial deadline. Areas that can be utilized include school yards and other school property; in some cases, some schools may also request permission to close off streets and hold classes in city parks. More than 300 schools have submitted plans for outdoor learning.

Updated, September 4th: Out of the 1600 public schools, 798 schools' outdoor space applications were approved, out of 826 proposals. The city is working with the 28 other schools for solutions.

How will kids get to school?

The DOE said it will continue to provide school transportation “to the extent possible,” adding that use of the MTA system may be necessary in situations where buses can’t be used to safely transport students.

The plan calls for as many families as possible to help the school district by “transporting their children to school on their own, walking, or biking." In cases where families are using public transit, parents should have their children wear a face covering and practice social distancing while en route to and returning home from school as much as possible, the DOE said.

Masks will be available on all school buses.

School buses will also enforce social distancing, reducing each bus’s capacity to approximately 25% of its normal passenger load.

Updated, September 4th: The DOE is hoping to have school bus contracts finalized by the first day of school; it's expected 10,000 buses will be on the road, and 4,000 of them still need to be inspected.

It is unclear how many students will need to take subways or buses to go to school. Before the pandemic, 100,000 students used MetroCards.

What's the screening process for students and staff coming into school buildings?

The DOE said schools will perform random temperature screening checks, and any student who registers higher than 100.0 degrees during the screening check will be prohibited from entering the building. The plan does allow for circumstances involving young students who arrived at school by bus to enter the building even with a fever, to be isolated and monitored until they can be sent home.

Testing is still a major component of the school reopening plan and the DOE is asking their school staffers to get tested at least seven days before the first day of school, and to get tested at least once a month afterwards.

In addition, students and staff cannot come to school for in-person learning if within the past 14 days they had traveled internationally or from a state with “widespread community transmission” as determined by New York’s travel advisories.

What will lunchtime look like in schools when indoor dining hasn't yet been permitted in the rest of New York City?

Cafeterias may be repurposed into classroom space, and students will likely eat their lunches in their classrooms to minimize interactions. The DOE said grab-and-go meals will be available for breakfast and lunch each weekday at schools, and will be also available for kids engaged in remote learning each day for pickup at their school or another location.

Kids will be taught while they're eating lunch, the DOE announced in early August. The program is modeled after the department's Breakfast in the Classroom program, in which students eat lunch during one of their regularly scheduled instructional periods. The DOE said that younger grades will have "fun, engaging and enriching" lunch instruction, such as "interactive read-alouds, social-emotional learning, content through music," while middle and high school students will have class-based instruction.

Will students and staff wear masks while inside school buildings?

The DOE's policy is that “face coverings must be worn at all times except while eating or drinking.” Carranza has said that students who refuse to wear a mask for personal—rather than medical or developmental—reasons will be sent home.

Will there be after-school programs or sports offered?

The DOE said on August 7th that information is forthcoming on after-school programs, noting “after-school programs will require increased custodial labor and programs will incur extra extended use costs to pay for those services.” Interscholastic sports are still not permitted by the state Department of Health.

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